Dell first put Mini 9 information on its support website early in September. The 8.9in Small, Cheap Computer was launched just days later.

The new laptop's name and model number - 1210, since you ask - suggest it'll be pitched as the Mini 9's bigger brother. With a 12in screen, it's going to be a little large for an SCC, but the Mini 12 could be Dell's attempt to come up with a cut-price skinny laptop to beat Apple's MacBook Air.

If not, it's hard to see what the benefit of a 12in Atom-based standard-look laptop will be over, say, an ordinary 12 or 13in notebook.